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Friday, August 16, 2013

Today Charlie Manuel was fired as Phillies manager. Here is our article reporting the firing http://www.philliesphamily.com/2013/08/the-end-of-charlie-manuel-era.html . Manuel was the longest tenured manager in Major League Baseball. He won 5 National League Eastern Divisions, won an NL pennant, and won the 2008 World Series. Just this past Tuesday, Manuel became the 59th manager to win 1,000 games. This season the Phillies had very low expectations and many let downs. The team has finally hit rock bottom with the shocking firing of Manuel. Ryne Sandberg takes over as the interim manager.

Every Phillies fan has a different part of the organization to blame of the lack of success. While all parts are to blame, the team was built by the GM which is Ruben Amaro Jr. Amaro Jr. didn't even build the team that won the 2008 World Series, the team was built by the previous GM, Hall of Famer, Pat Gillick. Amaro hasn't helped the team at all and he is running the team into the ground. In this season and the last Amaro has controlled a team that missed the playoffs. The team on the field this year is especially weak. A bullpen with no good arms, aging players, a poor minor league system, and an open door as the closer. The list goes on and on. The team needs to be rebuild immediately and Amaro missed his chance to start the renovations at the trading deadline.

If anyone should have been fired, it should have been Amaro at the beginning of the season. He has continually made bad choices and didn't make moves he should have made. In a fairly classless move the management fired Manuel at a bad time. They should have either fired him in early May and let Sandberg show what he can do or let him finish the season and not bring him back for the 2014 season. Now that the Manuel era is over. Isn't the firing of Ruben Amaro Jr. overdo?

The Phillies have a press conference today that is at 2:30, and Jim Salisbury of CSN Philly reports that the team will announce a new manager. Thus, the Charlie Manuel era is over. Even though Manuel brought the team one of the most successful, if the not the most successful era in Phillies history. But, it seems like the team lost faith in Charlie and need a change in guard.

Remember Charlie brought the team a string of 5 division titles in a row from 2007-2011. He also gave us 2 pennants from 2008-2009 and a championship in 2008. But the team slowly did worse each year starting in 2010. But, it seems like this season full of promise has hit rock bottom. This change should breathe new life into the team. Ryne Sandburg can help any team better. This will require a joint effort between players and coaches to make this work.